Classical Music Discoveries

Fusion lovers will enjoy the PARMA recordings debut of oboist Margaret Herlehy in this fresh, new collection of Latin-inspired jazz. Uniquely, oboe is the central instrument in each composition. Herlehy not only meets the demands of such a challenge but exceeds them. “Choro Negro” is a prime example. To the ear it should register as Brazilian, or even French, but it becomes something altogether different. The result, while experimental, is quite sensible leading the listener to wonder why he or she hasn’t heard the oboe in this capacity before. “Café 1930” is Herlehy’s opportunity to showcase her versatility with incredible depth in this introspective and solemn romanze. The other end of the spectrum is the fun and vibrant “Diabinho Maluco,” a flute and oboe duet reminiscent of the woodwind agility demonstrated in J.S. Bach’s great instrumental suites but delivered with the swagger of a modern Latin dance. On eight of the nine tracks appears guitarist David Newsam a regional powerhouse in the latin, jazz, and classical guitar community and a colleague of Herlehy at the University of New Hampshire. With Rosewood Café Margaret Herlehy is serving something exploratory and quite palatable. Enjoy! Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p828/Rosewood_Cafe_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p829/Rosewood_Cafe_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://bigroundrecords.com/epk/rosewoodcafe/

As a 4th generation musician Erik-Peter Mortensen (AKA Erik or EP) started singing professionally since the age of 9, first at the Metropolitan & New York City Opera Children's Choruses, and then in many professional choirs through the present (most recently with the Schola of St. Agnes Church, in midtown Manhattan. Having naturally developed a passionate love for Early, Baroque, and Classical music, he wishes to make the beauty of these earlier styles appeal to much wider audiences, either through fusing it with other musical styles, creating new styles, or promulgating it through his own music scoring for films, video games, and other multimedia formats. Purchase the complete album on CD Baby at:https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/erikpetermortensen13   Fiverr link to contract music for you:https://www.fiverr.com/share/9bPxY   For more information, please visit:https://www.patreon.com/ErikPeter Promo expires 1/24/20

SMALL STONES Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, piano SMALL STONES showcases Dr. Nancy Zipay Desalvo’s exploration into both minute and immense concepts. Recorded on solo piano, DeSalvo performs the compositions translating the compressed beauty of Jason Tad Howard and the expansive universe of Daniel Perttu. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p826/Small_Stones_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p827/Small_Stones.html For more information, please visit: http://navonarecords.com/epk/smallstones/

La battaglia di Legnano (The Battle of Legnano) is an opera in four acts, with music by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian-language libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. It was based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry, later the co-librettist of Don Carlos. Written as a commission from the Teatro Argentina in the "beleaguered republic" of Rome while the composer was still living in Paris, he traveled to Rome in late 1848 to prepare the opera for its first performance, which was given on 27 January 1849. Musicologist Roger Parker describes the première as "a clamorous success, with the entire final act encored" and the audience wild with enthusiasm. He goes to add that act 4 was encored at every performance of the run. However, we learn elsewhere that the opera failed in its 1850 production in Genoa. In later years Battaglia was given under different settings and different titles until Italian unification allowed for the opera to be presented as originally written. We know that Verdi considered revising it in the 1850s, but never did. While it has not been performed with any frequency, the succession of performances given after its 1959 revival have kept Battaglia in the public eye to this day. Performed by the CMD Grand Opera Company of Venice Recorded by Classical Music Discoveries Download now at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p825/Verdi%3A_La_battaglia_di_Legnano.html

Mexican composer Felipe Pérez Santiago introduces the follow up to his 2013 album, Mantis with his first Navona release, FORMIKA, an album of chamber music. Pérez Santiago continues his series with a vast notational layering and timing propelled by traditional instrumentation. Masterful playing by choice ensembles like Tamayo and Onix, create a particularly kaleidoscopic nostalgia in this pitching album. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p823/Formika_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p824/Formika_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://navonarecords.com/epk/formika/index.html

EXHALING SPACE Alejandro Rutty With EXHALING SPACE, Alejandro Rutty and his cast of remarkable performers create one hour of fresh, captivating music combining Latin and world music styles with the classical tradition. With tracks like the futuristic tango Martian Milonga and the meditative More Music for Examining and Buying Merchandise, Rutty composes the album like a breathing exercise, taking in an anxious pace in one movement, and then in the next, letting the melodies exhale gently through the piece. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p821/Exhaling_Space_%28CD%29.html Download a digital copy at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p822/Exhaling_Space_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/exhalingspace/

MUSICAL IMAGES FOR PIANO Mark John McEncroe Composer Mark John McEncroe's latest album MUSICAL IMAGES FOR PIANO presents a theater of the mind, performed with a delicacy that is both melancholic and nostalgic. Rather than attempting to shatter musical boundaries, McEncroe focuses on the introspective, letting the listener’s stories and memories give the music its own unique life. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p819/Musical_Images_for_Piano_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p820/Musical_Images_for_Piano.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/musicalimagesforpiano/index.html

Verdi's rarely performed masterpiece "I masnadieri" (The Bandit) A man becomes involved with a group of bandits. However, his innocent and highly moral fiance also becomes intrigued. How he deals with the situation is unique and heartbreaking. Performed by the CMD Grand Opera Company of Venice and recorded by Classical Music Discoveries. Download now at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p818/Verdi%3A_The_Bandits_%28digital_download%29.html

In light of all the musical beauty and palpable excellence of this new release, it is hard to tell whose merit it is: the Chamber Singers', or conductor David Holdhusen's? Most likely, the answer lies within the question: One cannot tell, because all elements of this recording – composers named and unnamed, the choir singers, the conductor – work so astoundingly well in unison, just as you'd expect from a truly brilliant ensemble. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p816/I_Carry_Your_Heart_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p817/I_Carry_Your_Heart_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/icarryyourheart/

CROSSWIND TOWER DUO ERIN HELGESON TORRES FLUTE MICHAEL RENE TORRES SAXOPHONE On CROSSWIND, flutist Erin Helgeson Torres and saxophonist Michael Rene Torres, who have performed as Tower Duo since 2007, deliver a stunning set of performances which utilize flute and saxophone. Each performance evokes a sensory or psychological experience as wide-ranging as the various sensations encountered in a wet, humid environment, or the juxtaposition of consonance and dissonance. The album accentuates the duo’s emphasis on performing and premiering contemporary works by emerging composers, such as PARMA label-mates Chin Ting Chan and Scott Brickman, as well as one of Torres’ own compositions, the complex and introspective Four Short Episodes. Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p815/Crosswind_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.ravellorecords.com/epk/crosswind/index.html

WHEN THE SOUL SPEAKS CHORAL MUSIC BY JAN JIRÁSEK BONIFANTES BOYS CHOIR & CZECH SOLOIST CONSORT JAN MÍŠEK CONDUCTOR The Bonifantes Boys Choir showcases the best of the best of the Czech boy singers and composer Jan Jirásek over the past 20 years. WHEN THE SOUL SPEAKS demonstrates the abilities of both the ensemble and its leaders through the performance of Latin Christian masses, Buddhist mantras and Quran excerpts, and traditional Czech hymns -- together presenting the idea that different religions and cultural customs can stand together side by side. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p812/When_the_Soul_Speaks_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p813/When_the_Soul_Speaks_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/whenthesoulspeaks/index.html

GREAT SOUTHERN LAND marks trumpeter Phillip Chase Hawkins’ recording debut. Hawkins’ decision to present the music of internationally renowned composer Brendan Collins in both duo and trio configurations clearly illustrates the exceptional synergy that exists between composer and artist. Each piece presents a unique scene, from Australian bushrangers escaping prison to the rich sounds of Vienna and its composers. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p810/Great_Southern_Land_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p811/Great_Southern_Land_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/greatsouthernland/

PIECES OF MIND AND MATTER features five string duos in chronological order of their creation, though even the precise instrumental set-up of the individual parts betrays long, careful thought. With the mathematical precision and analytical construction in PIECES OF MIND AND MATTER, it would be hard to dispute that mathematics and music do indeed go together – if one only understands both, as Paul Lombardi indubitably does. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p808/Pieces_of_Mind_and_Matter_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p809/Pieces_of_Mind_and_Matter_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.ravellorecords.com/epk/piecesofmindandmatter/

The idea for THE JOHN PSATHAS PERCUSSION PROJECT: VOLUME ONE began in 2013 with John Psathas’ piano and gamelan piece Waiting: Still which Omar Carmenates arranged for percussion trio. While unknown at the time, this arrangement launched a five-year-long relationship that culminates in Carmenates’ debut for PARMA Recordings. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p806/John_Psathas_Percussion_Project%3A_Vol._1_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p807/John_Psathas_Percussion_Project%3A_Vol_1_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/percussionproject1/

TOKER MESSING AROUND ...WITH THE CLASSICS ;) HAKAN A. TOKER “Music is a game we play… It is to be respected, but not to be taken too seriously. It belongs to all of us. It is ours to create and recreate, to mess around with, as long as we give credit.” In his own words, Toker expresses the freedom that can be found within the written page of every musical score. A whole world can be discovered, rediscovered, and recreated in a single piece, and TOKER MESSING AROUND seeks to do just that. Purchase CD at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p804/Toker_Messing_Around_%28CD%29.html Download at: http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p805/Toker_Messing_Around_%28digital_download%29.html For more information, please visit: http://www.navonarecords.com/epk/messingaround/